Global Courant
Sandra Torres and Bernardo Arevalo emerge as the top two contenders, the election commission says, as expected in August.
The two front-runners in Guatemala’s presidential election will face a second round, the election commission said, after no candidate in the divisive contest secured the 50 percent needed to win the election outright over the weekend.
The country’s election commission said Monday morning that the results were “virtually final” as former First Lady Sandra Torres and fellow center-left candidate Bernardo Arevalo emerged from Sunday’s vote as the top two contenders.
With 98 percent of the vote counted, Torres of the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party had 15.7 percent support and Arevalo of Movimiento Semilla (the Seed Movement) had 11.8 percent, according to the commission’s provisional count.
“We are happy,” Torres said at a press conference, optimistic about the second round, which is expected to take place on August 20. “We’re going to win, whoever it may be.”
But Sunday’s election saw low turnout and numerous blank votes, with many voters doubting the next government’s ability to tackle the Central American country’s long-standing problems of unemployment, security and corruption .
Clashes between voters and police hit at least one polling station on Sunday when local residents accused the mayor of bringing in and paying people from outside the area to vote.
Sandra Torres of the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party shows her ballot in Guatemala City, June 25 (Moises Castillo/AP Photo)
The election also came amid what human rights lawyers say was an alarming rollback of Guatemala’s democratic institutions, including a crackdown on the press and the decision to exclude early presidential frontrunners from voting.
The candidacies of three popular candidates were declared null and void by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal in decisions that their supporters say amount to political sideline.
Businessman Carlos Pineda, an early frontrunner who was among those barred from participating, had urged his backers to mess up their ballots.
Torres and center candidate Edmond Mulet both accused the ruling party of vote-buying.
Pre-election polls had not suggested Arevalo, an ex-diplomat and son of former president Juan Jose Arevalo, would make it to the second round. Arevalo has made fighting corruption a top priority of its bid.
Speaking at the central polling station, Arevalo said he would use the confidence voters showed in him on Sunday to “pull the country out of the swamp” if elected. “The results are the exhaustion of the people of the traditional political class,” he said.
Meanwhile, polls have suggested the 67-year-old Torres will struggle to win a runoff, given her unpopularity in the capital Guatemala City, which is home to a high percentage of the electorate. She finished second in the last two presidential elections.
The ex-wife of Alvaro Colom, Guatemala’s president from 2008 to 2012, Torres competed with more than 20 other candidates, including Mulet, a career diplomat, and Zury Rios, daughter of the late right-wing dictator Efrain Rios Montt.
Bernardo Arevalo speaks with members of his party on the day of the first round of voting, June 25 (Cristina Chiquin/Reuters)
Preliminary results pointed to a fragmented Congress, which could make it difficult for the next president to govern.
160 members of Congress, 340 mayors and 20 delegates to the Central American Parliament were also eligible for election. But many voters had already lost confidence that the election would bring about substantial change.
“We got up very early to vote. We vote with enthusiasm – and then, the presidents, it’s always the same,” voter Maria Chajon said resignedly to AFP news agency.
Another voter, 58-year-old attorney Manuel Morales, also expressed skepticism about the political system. “There are no options to improve the country; they are the same as always,” Morales told AFP before casting his vote on the outskirts of the capital.
“The law allows me to void and that’s what I’m going to do.”
